The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, March 1883 / A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture. / Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

by Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Chautauqua Institution

But as your blood thus circulates, through your living frame, fresh nourishment, newly dissolved food, is added in some places to its streams; in other places nourishment and fuel are taken from it to furnish the active chambers of the laboratory with warmth and power; in other places worn-out substance is added to it to be carried away in its current; and at other places this worn-out substance is poured away from it through the outlets provided for its removal. The principal outlets through which the waste of your living laboratory is poured away, have been already spoken of in detail—they are the pores of the skin, the drains of the laboratory; and the pores of the lungs, that with the mouth form the chimney of the laboratory through which the smoke and the vapors from the burned fuel fly away. In addition to these outlets, there is, however, another series by which some denser matters, which can not be got through either the skin-pores or the lungs, are streamed away. This series is continually in operation, but the details of its arrangements are so ingeniously planned, that it accommodates its work to the demand of each passing instant. When, for instance, the perspiring pores of the skin are widely open for the cooling of the frame, and an increased amount of liquid is consequently steamed away through them, then these outlets are narrowed; but when, on the other hand, the skin-pores are closed, or when any extra flood of liquid is thrown into the interior of the frame during cold weather, then the additional outlets at once are brought into very active play.

Now, just imagine the case of a large town, in which there is a certain quantity of waste liquid needing to be carried away through drain-pipes every day, but in which also there occur occasional excessive floods of rain, which must have a way of escape provided for them whenever they happen. How clever you would think it if some skillful engineer fixed valves in the drain-pipes of that town, which kept themselves fast closed under ordinary circumstances, but which opened of their own accord whenever the pressure of an extra flood came, and so allowed the excess of liquid to flow safely and freely away. Such has really been the proceeding of the skillful Engineer of your living frame. Your body is exposed to the risk of occasional excessive floods. When the weather is very cold, for instance, the pores of your skin are closed, and not more than a single pint of liquid can force its way out through them, in the place of the four pints which would pass in warm weather. Much of the water which would otherwise have escaped from the channels of the supply-pipes, then remains in them, coursing round in the progress of the circulation. Sometimes, too, in all probability you will be tempted to swallow an unreasonable quantity of liquid, beyond any demand the mere process of cooling an over-heated frame can require. But whenever you have thus set up an unusual internal flood, sluice-gates are opened, and through these the excess is rapidly poured until the flood is got rid of. In those parts of your body which have been named the kidneys, there are pores through which waste liquid is always draining, without being turned into vapor or steam; but in the kidneys there are also chambers composed of very fine walls, which are strong enough to prevent fluid from passing through them when it is only pressed by a gentle force, but which are not strong enough to do so when the pressure becomes greater in consequence of the over-flooding of the supply-pipes. The kidneys are the sluice-gates of your body, provided with outlets for common use, and with self-acting valves which come into operation upon occasions of excessive flood.

Thus astonishing, then, is the care which has been taken in perfecting the arrangements of the heating service of that complicated laboratory, your living body. Fuel is thrown into an internal furnace, more or less plentifully, according to need. The fuel is there burned, and fanned by air-blasts, which are strengthened or weakened as the occasion may require. The heat produced by the burning is economized by external packings and wrappings, or it is scattered by the opening of evaporating pores on the external surface, and by the drenching of that surface with steaming moisture; and self-acting valves are provided to regulate the quantity of liquid contained in the supply-pipes, so that the cooling pores may never be forced into mischievous activity by the mere pressure of excess in their channels, at a time when the body is already sufficiently chill.

When cold is suddenly applied to the previously warm skin of the living body, it shuts up all the perspiring pores at once, and then empties its supply-pipes of their streaming blood inwards. You know how pale and numb your skin becomes on a cold frosty day, when you stand quietly in the chilling air. That is because the cold squeezes all the blood out of the small vessels of your skin. But where do you suppose the squeezed-out blood goes to? It flows directly into the several internal parts, choking up and overloading their channels. If the skin be soon made warm again, the overloaded parts of the inside once more get emptied, and recover their usual freedom; but if it be kept cold, then their overloading and choking continues, and great discomfort is experienced. All kinds of inflammations and disorders are produced in this way. What are commonly known as colds are internal obstructions of this nature. Cold in the head is an affection in which the lining of the nostrils is overcharged with stagnating blood. Sore throat is caused by a similar condition in the lining of the throat. And cough by the same state in the lining of the vessels and cavities of the chest.

The mere application of a chill temperature to the skin is not alone, however, enough to give a cold. This result chiefly comes when the application has been made while the body is in a weakened or exhausted state, and therefore has not the power to resist and overcome the internal disturbance of the even blood-flow. Colds are nearly always caught in consequence of a sudden exposure of the body to a chill, either when it is in a state of exhaustion and fatigue from sustained exertion, or when it has been for some time previously over-heated. Excess of heat itself soon produces exhaustion, and depression of the strength and the powers of life. When a chill is applied to the skin while the body is fresh and strong, as, for instance, when a man pours cold water over himself the instant he gets out of a warm bed in the morning, after a sound and refreshing sleep, it does no harm, for this reason: First, the blood is driven away from the supply-pipes of the skin by the cold, and flows inwards; but the refreshed heart, then becoming sensible of its arrival, rouses itself to increased effort, and prevents obstruction by pumping on the liquid more vigorously. By this means blood is soon sent back again to the skin in great abundance, and makes it glow with renewed warmth. It is only when the cold is very severe, or very long continued, that this re-action, as it is called, would be hindered, and internal disorder be likely to be set up.

Here, then, is one of the advantages of employing warm clothing. It prevents the catching of cold by protecting the skin from sudden chills at a time when the internal parts of the frame are depressed and unable to meet, without injury, the effects which follow upon it. If at any time you are very weary, and very warm, remember, then, that you must keep yourself warm by drawing more clothes round you, or by some other plan. Want of attention to this very simple proceeding, or absolute ignorance that it ought to be adopted, is among the common means whereby men lay up for themselves disease and suffering, and cause sickness to take the place of health.

How constantly it happens, at the very first appearance of fine weather in spring, that sore throats and coughs and colds are met with everywhere. This is nearly always because people are then tempted to throw aside the warm clothing which they have used through the winter, and so to leave their skins very much more exposed to the influences of the sudden chills, which are quite sure to occur at this time. Just observe what nature herself does in this matter. She does not take off the horse’s warm coat the moment the spring sunshine bursts out in the sky. She compels him to keep it upon his back, at the risk of his being a good deal encumbered by it now and then, because it is better he should submit to this small inconvenience for a time, rather than be exposed to the danger of a grave disease. As you may advantageously take a lesson from the bee as to the management of fresh air in your dwellings, so you may advantageously go to the quadruped to learn how to manage the alteration of your clothing at the change of the seasons. When you see the horse putting on his fine silken garment for summer, follow his example; but until you do see this, be wise, and still keep within the protection of your winter wools and furs.

There is another plan by which people every day expose themselves to the danger of catching cold, and of so falling into disease. They commonly sit in very draughty rooms; apartments which are warmed by bright fires, but which are at the same time chilled by cold wind rushing in at large crannies and crevices, far beyond the quantity which is needed for the mere supply of pure air. Such rooms are warm and cold climates brought together in a nutshell. There is a scorching summer near the fire, and a freezing winter near the window at the same instant. Merely walking about the room therefore takes the body in a moment from one climate to another, and this must happen sometimes when the body is not prepared to meet, and accommodate itself to, the change. A chilled surface, and internal obstructions result, and colds and diseases follow very soon. The inside of rooms should be in winter time very much what they are in the summer season; that is, not too hot, but equally warm in all parts, and with a sufficient current of air passing through them to keep them pure, although not with enough to set up dangerous draughts. If there are draughts, then the protection of warm clothing must be constantly employed, to prevent the chilling influence from attacking the skin. Warm and undraughty dwelling-rooms are the natural allies of warm clothes in health-preserving power.

There is another very excellent companion and helper of warm clothes in this good work. This helper is “exercise.” If, when you are weary and warm, and have no additional clothes to draw round you on the instant to prevent a chill, you sit down or stand still in the cold wind, you will be nearly sure to catch cold, and to be made ill. But if, on the other hand, you keep moving about until you can either clothe yourself more warmly, or go into a warm room, then you will be almost as certain to escape without harm. Exercise aids the heart in keeping the blood moving briskly, and if at any time there is an inclination for the blood-flow to stagnate and get obstructed internally, then exercise overcomes the obstruction, and sends the lagging blood cheerily on toward all parts of the frame, and back toward the skin. Brisk exercise thus possesses the power to overcome mischief, as well as to prevent it. Its influence in quickening and sustaining the flow of the blood-streams through the supply-pipes of the body, necessarily leads in the end to the strengthening of every structure in the frame, and to the rousing of every operation that is carried on in the living laboratory. Every one who values the blessing of health and strength will do well, if his daily task is not one of exertion in the open air, to make such a task for himself. One hour at least out of the twenty-four should be spent in quickening the blood-streams, and in deepening the breathing by walking briskly in some open space where the fresh winds of heaven have free play.

But we will now imagine that in ignorance of all these particulars, or in consequence of some long-continued exertion and exposure which the demands of duty made it altogether impossible for you to avoid, you have caught a cold, and are beginning to suffer from a sore throat, or a cough, or some other sign that matters within are not as they should be. What, under such circumstances, ought you to do to stop the cold, and get rid of it, before serious disorder is brought about? Here, again, warm clothing is of the highest value. If the chilled surface be at once closely covered up, and be kept covered, the blood is soon drawn back to the skin, and the internal obstructions are in this way overcome. The best possible way to get rid of a cold quickly, for those who can follow it, is to go to bed as soon as it begins, and to keep there until the cold is cured. If you can not follow this plan, then drink as little of any fluid as you can for four or five days, and there will soon be not enough blood, as regards quantity, in your body, to keep internal parts overcharged, and they will be relieved, and you will get well. There is this evil in the first plan of curing a cold: people who have lain in bed for some time, come out of it with the pores of their skins more than usually opened, and more than usually disposed to suffer from any fresh chill. People who pursue the second plan may be exposed in any way without meeting this risk.